A Washington state court jury on Friday found Ernst & Young liable for millions of dollars in losses a Washington investment firm took from the collapse of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Steven W. Thomas, attorney for FutureSelect Portfolio Management Inc., said that the jury found the Big Four auditing firm was negligent in its work as auditor for a feeder fund that pooled investors’ cash and funneled it Madoff’s way. FutureSelect claimed that Ernst & Young, as auditor, supplied false information that FutureSelect Portfolio Management Inc. relied on to invest with the feeder fund. FutureSelect, of Redmond, Wash., invested approximately $200 million in a feeder fund that sent its money to Madoff, whose 2008 arrest exposed a massive Ponzi scheme in which investors lost more than $17 billion. In 2010, FutureSelect sued Ernst & Young, accusing it of negligence and seeking to recover its losses.
